Why did Indian tea three elephants disappear? The secret of the Soviet elephant

The best tea products of the old Soviet state standard.

Tea "The Same with an Elephant" GOST 1938, Indian, black long leaf, small-leaved, first grade, net weight 100 g.

Produced by: Moscow Tea Factory.

67.00

Due to the wholesale price, the minimum order is: 1 box (70 pieces of 100 gr.)

This unpretentiously packaged, inexpensive GOST black tea of ​​decent quality is the favorite tea of ​​the administration of the Special Store site. We recommend it to everyone. Please contact the contact number for details.

Article "GOST tea products in the USSR and Russian Federation".

Short story tea

The history of tea has many centuries, according to legend - even millennia. According to Chinese legend, tea was discovered by the legendary Shen Nung almost twenty-eight centuries before the birth of Christ. It was in China that tea began to be used first as a medicine, and then as a drink. In those days, making tea was complex process- most often it was sold in briquettes, which were then pounded in a mortar; later, powdered tea came into fashion, which was whipped with a whisk with some water. The tea ceremony became a tradition lost in the thirteenth century due to the invasion of the Mongols. Subsequently, tea culture was revived, somewhat modified - now tea leaves were brewed in hot water. It was with this option that the Europeans met. But in the nineteenth century, China began to lose ground in the export of tea - this was facilitated by the wars and revolutions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, giving way to India. Only now China has begun to approach the first place in the export of tea again.

History of the Moscow Tea Factory

In the second half of the nineteenth century, tea consumption in Russia increased so much that trading house"Vogau and Co" decides to expand the scope of its interests in Russia. In 1962, the trading house concludes an agreement for the supply of tea to Russia. Exactly thirty-one years later, a factory was created in Moscow under the control of a joint-stock company controlled by Vogau and Co. In subsequent years, the trading house managed to make a fortune selling tea, but curtailed its activities with the entry of Russia into the First World War - more than half of the board members are Germans. The tea factory was soon renamed the "Moscow tea-packing factory named after V. I. Lenin" and in 1939 received the challenge Red Banner. "The same tea with an elephant" was already produced in 1934. A pack of this tea, along with " Ceylon tea" and, the most frequent "tea No. 36" could be seen on any table, but the first grade "with an elephant" was highest quality and it was usually reserved for holidays and special days. He relied on state and party officials in food packages.

Is it possible to buy GOST tea today?

Today GOST black tea in most cases is a blend - that is, a mixture of twenty to thirty varieties of tea. This ensures the stability of taste and aroma, since tea of ​​the same variety and different years can be very different. In general, Indian tea has a richer taste and less strong aroma than Chinese tea. The process of turning tea leaves into what we usually see involves several stages. This is withering, that is, treatment with warm air for eight hours; then twisting to force tea leaf release juice; then fermentation, where the leaf is simply exposed to the oxygen in the air, which gives it its characteristic ready tea taste, color and aroma (in the USSR this was most often replaced by an additional heat treatment). And only then the tea is dried, sorted and packaged. By the way, if you didn't know green tea made from the same leaves of the same varieties - only green tea is not subjected to withering and fermentation. According to this recipe, GOST black tea has been prepared since 1933 with virtually no changes.

- Where's your tea?

- To the left, a whole department. You'll see right away.

It's easy to say. Looking into a large supermarket in Delhi, I rummaged through several shelves before I came across loose-leaf black tea familiar from childhood. No wonder - after all, the culture of tea drinking in India is different from what we are used to. Soluble (!) Is popular - yes, like coffee - tea, which is poured with boiling water, as well as the "granular version" - leaves twisted into solid balls. "Normal" tea in our understanding in India is not easy to find. In the mornings, they drink masala tea from glass glasses - tea leaves with milk ( pernicious influence British colonizers) and masala spices containing pepper and spices. You swallow such “happiness”, and your tongue burns - so sharply. But that's okay. In the state of Himachal Pradesh, where many Tibetans live, they prefer tea with yak butter and ... dried chicken. Both a drink and breakfast at the same time. Some tribes (in particular, the Gurkhas) do not brew anything at all, but simply chew tea leaves with ... garlic. In general, the naive idea of ​​India as a tea country is crumbling from the very first days of your stay.

Only female fingers

“Extensive tea plantations in India appeared only in 1856 - English planters brought seedlings from China,” explains one of the tea businessmen. Abdul-Wahid Jamarati. - Before that, only wild varieties grew here. Now tea is grown in three mountainous regions. In the northeast of India - in Darjeeling and the state of Assam, as well as in the south - Nilgiri tea is produced there. The taste requires cool weather and frequent rains: the leaves love to absorb moisture. Most fragrant tea they are harvested only by hand and only by women (their salary is about 5 thousand rubles a month for Russian money. - Auth.): male fingers are rougher and cannot pinch off the youngest shoots - flushes. During machine harvesting, everything is cut off in a row, so these varieties are cheap: experts cynically call them a broom. Personally, I am an ardent fan of tea, which is harvested in Darjeeling between February and May, it has a very bright and rich taste. By the way, never buy tea in the bazaars, where it is poured into open bags and kept all day long. outdoors. At such a leaf, the aroma disappears: it turns into chopped hay. I was in Russia and saw - you store the leaves incorrectly. Tea should be put in the refrigerator, at a temperature of + 8 °, so it concentrates its qualities. Do not keep in a paper box, the best option is a regular glass jar.

The most fragrant tea is collected only by hand and only by women. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

The plantations of Darjeeling are fascinating - huge mountains covered with greenery of tea bushes. My guide, 28-year-old Lakshmi from Tamil Nadu, assures me that she is satisfied with the position: “It’s not coal at a damn depth in a mine to mine.” She considers herself a tea professional, as she is able to collect 80 kg (!) of a leaf per day. The machine, by the way, collects 1.5 tons, but it is very small: we subsequently drink this dust, brewing tea bags. Rubbing the delicate leaves of a tea bush with his fingers, Lakshmi says: they grow back in two weeks, and in a year one can accumulate 70 kg of tea from one plant (2.5 times more in Assam). True, now some site owners are planting artificially bred varieties - the taste is not a fountain, but they will cut 100 kilos in six months. Alas, there are enough various frauds with tea in India.

For example, empty jars and packs with the inscription “Elite” or “Choice” are freely sold in the surrounding shops, and unscrupulous traders pour penny varieties into them: after all, only highly experienced tasters abroad can determine the quality of tea.

What's in the brew?

"Unfortunately, good tea small firms often do bodywork, they tell me on the plantation. “They throw in cheap versions of Kenyan or Malaysian, put the stamp “Made in India” and the pack goes to the international market.” How much counterfeit tea is sold in Russia, they could not estimate in Darjeeling. The British (and in Britain they love Indian tea no less than we do) carefully monitor the quality and strictly check the suppliers. Do they do it for us?

“Frankly, even the tea that the USSR bought could hardly be called Indian,” says businessman Vijay Sharma, whose firm sold tea to the Soviet Union in the late 1970s. - It was a blend, a mixture. Depending on the variety in the famous Soviet times In a pack with an image of an elephant, the share of tea from India was only 15-25%. The main filler (more than 50%) was Georgian leaf. And right now, things aren't going well. I tried tea from sellers in Moscow and St. Petersburg, it turned out that they have no idea what period the collection (taste depends on) of Darjeeling. And what's more - Nilgiri tea is often sold as "elite" tea, although in India it is the cheapest, a drink for the poor, it is it that is packaged in bags. In places, Indonesian or Vietnamese tea was sold under the guise of Indian tea.

Cup of red pepper

I order tea at street cafe in Delhi. It is usually cooked in an iron kettle (or even a saucepan) for open fire. The leaves are sometimes boiled immediately in milk (at the request of the client) or in water, after adding cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and chili pepper. In general, from the outside it looks like cooking soup. A glass costs 15 rupees (13.5 rubles). The taste is something strange, and almost ten spoons of sugar are poured: in India they love it to the extreme sweet tea. I ask you to brew black Assam leaves without milk and spices. The waiter appears with a glass of steaming tea and ... puts a jug of milk next to him. "For what?! I asked…” “Sir,” his voice sounds with obvious pity. “But you won’t taste good!”

Summing up, I will say: deliveries of Indian tea to our country are still chaotic, sellers understand varieties poorly or frankly fantasize, pushing poor-quality tea leaves from other countries to the Russian consumer. I am generally silent about the price - in India, tea costs 130 rubles. per kilo, we can sell it for a thousand. It's a pity. Indian varieties, especially Darjeeling, are great, and our business has long had to work directly with India, and not buy tea at exorbitant prices through Europe and dubious small firms in India. So for us it will be cheaper and, most importantly, tastier.

- Where's your tea?

- To the left, a whole department. You'll see right away.

It's easy to say. Looking into a large supermarket in Delhi, I rummaged through several shelves before I came across loose-leaf black tea familiar from childhood. No wonder - after all, the culture of tea drinking in India is different from what we are used to. Soluble (!) Is popular - yes, like coffee - tea, which is poured with boiling water, as well as the "granular version" - leaves twisted into solid balls. "Normal" tea in our understanding in India is not easy to find. In the mornings, they drink masala tea from glass glasses - tea leaves with milk (the harmful influence of the British colonialists) and masala spices containing pepper and spices. You swallow such “happiness”, and your tongue burns - so sharply. But that's okay. In the state of Himachal Pradesh, where many Tibetans live, they prefer tea with yak butter and ... dried chicken powder. Both a drink and breakfast at the same time. Some tribes (in particular, the Gurkhas) do not brew anything at all, but simply chew tea leaves with ... garlic. In general, the naive idea of ​​India as a tea country is crumbling from the very first days of your stay.

Only female fingers

“Extensive tea plantations in India appeared only in 1856 - English planters brought seedlings from China,” explains one of the tea businessmen. Abdul-Wahid Jamarati. - Before that, only wild varieties grew here. Now tea is grown in three mountainous regions. In the northeast of India - in Darjeeling and the state of Assam, as well as in the south - Nilgiri tea is produced there. The taste requires cool weather and frequent rains: the leaves love to absorb moisture. The most fragrant tea is picked only by hand and only by women (their salary is about 5 thousand rubles a month in Russian money. - Auth.): men's fingers are rougher and cannot pinch off the youngest sprouts - flushes. During machine harvesting, everything is cut off in a row, so these varieties are cheap: experts cynically call them a broom. Personally, I am an ardent fan of tea, which is harvested in Darjeeling between February and May, it has a very bright and rich taste. By the way, never buy tea in the markets, where it is poured into open bags and kept outdoors all day. At such a leaf, the aroma disappears: it turns into chopped hay. I was in Russia and saw - you store the leaves incorrectly. Tea should be put in the refrigerator, at a temperature of + 8 °, so it concentrates its qualities. Do not keep it in a paper box, the best option is an ordinary glass jar.

The most fragrant tea is collected only by hand and only by women. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

The plantations of Darjeeling are fascinating - huge mountains covered with greenery of tea bushes. My guide, 28-year-old Lakshmi from Tamil Nadu, assures me that she is satisfied with the position: “It’s not coal at a damn depth in a mine to mine.” She considers herself a tea professional, as she is able to collect 80 kg (!) of a leaf per day. The machine, by the way, collects 1.5 tons, but it is very small: we subsequently drink this dust, brewing tea bags. Rubbing the delicate leaves of a tea bush with his fingers, Lakshmi says: they grow back in two weeks, and in a year one can accumulate 70 kg of tea from one plant (2.5 times more in Assam). True, now some site owners are planting artificially bred varieties - the taste is not a fountain, but they will cut 100 kilos in six months. Alas, there are enough various frauds with tea in India.

For example, empty jars and packs with the inscription “Elite” or “Choice” are freely sold in the surrounding shops, and unscrupulous traders pour penny varieties into them: after all, only highly experienced tasters abroad can determine the quality of tea.

What's in the brew?

“Unfortunately, good tea is often sold by small firms,” they tell me at the plantation. “They throw in cheap versions of Kenyan or Malaysian, put the stamp “Made in India” and the pack goes to the international market.” How much counterfeit tea is sold in Russia, they could not estimate in Darjeeling. The British (and in Britain they love Indian tea no less than we do) carefully monitor the quality and strictly check the suppliers. Do they do it for us?

“Frankly, even the tea that the USSR bought could hardly be called Indian,” says businessman Vijay Sharma, whose firm sold tea to the Soviet Union in the late 1970s. - It was a blend, a mixture. Depending on the variety, the share of tea from India in the famous in Soviet times pack with the image of an elephant was only 15-25%. The main filler (more than 50%) was Georgian leaf. And right now, things aren't going well. I tried tea from sellers in Moscow and St. Petersburg, it turned out that they have no idea what period the collection (taste depends on) of Darjeeling. And what's more - Nilgiri tea is often sold as "elite" tea, although in India it is the cheapest, a drink for the poor, it is it that is packaged in bags. In places, Indonesian or Vietnamese tea was sold under the guise of Indian tea.

Cup of red pepper

I order tea from a street cafe in Delhi. It is usually cooked in an iron kettle (or even a saucepan) over an open fire. The leaves are sometimes boiled immediately in milk (at the request of the client) or in water, after adding cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and chili pepper. In general, from the outside it looks like cooking soup. A glass costs 15 rupees (13.5 rubles). The taste is something strange, and almost ten spoons of sugar are poured in: in India they love extremely sweet tea. I ask you to brew black Assam leaves without milk and spices. The waiter appears with a glass of steaming tea and ... puts a jug of milk next to him. "For what?! I asked…” “Sir,” his voice sounds with obvious pity. “But you won’t taste good!”

Summing up, I will say: deliveries of Indian tea to our country are still chaotic, sellers understand varieties poorly or frankly fantasize, pushing poor-quality tea leaves from other countries to the Russian consumer. I am generally silent about the price - in India, tea costs 130 rubles. per kilo, we can sell it for a thousand. It's a pity. Indian varieties, especially Darjeeling, are great, and our business has long had to work directly with India, and not buy tea at exorbitant prices through Europe and dubious small firms in India. So for us it will be cheaper and, most importantly, tastier.

Now let's talk about tea. What does our unknown afftor-cretin write about Soviet tea? And he writes this:

There were several types of popular teas in the USSR, but Indian elephant tea was the most famous and beloved. That is why he became one of the symbols Soviet Union. Indian tea in the USSR it was imported in bulk and packaged in small packs of yellow and red-green cardboard. The packs also featured an image of an elephant with its trunk upturned. This tea was very popular among Soviet people, so it sold out very quickly in stores.

Of course, this tea was popular and quickly sold out, because it alone really looked like tea.

Oh where are you lovers quality tea, where are you, fans of pu-erh and oolong, Darjeeling and white tea from tips? Yes, what are pu-erhs, today we will be satisfied with the opinion of unpretentious fans of Greenfield, Brook Bond and even High Mountain.

Because, excuse me, even they would not drink the Indian hour with an elephant, but would frown their foreheads and look with surprise at what was considered very good tea by the people in Soviet times.

In general, there were two types of Indian with an elephant - in square packs and in oblong ones. For some reason unknown to science, tea in large oblong packs was several times inferior to that in square ones - and there was no less straw in it than in the popular tea USSR - Georgian No. 36. The most popular - because it was he who was sold completely freely, without a queue and without problems. And a long one with an elephant could also meet more often than a square one.

There was a story at one time - a commission arrived at the Irkutsk tea-packing factory to check how it was and what, since the quality of tea in square packs had deteriorated sharply. They looked like, looked like, but did not find anything - everything is in order, they say. It took about a month and - hop! The tea returned to its former acceptable quality. How did it happen? And, they said that the convicts wrote a baby to the director of the factory.

Probably, not everyone is aware - why did the prisoners care so much about the quality of tea of ​​this particular variety? Yes, everything is simple - it was a real currency in the zone, because it was from it that chifir was cooked. Only from him. Therefore, in each parcel to the zone, there were certainly at least a few of these packs.

And Indian tea - yes, it was sold out quickly. And in grocery "orders" he was a welcome product.

And this is the same Georgian No. 36. If anyone does not understand what a "beach fine" is, I explain - this is, in fact, tea dust.

Below - also Georgian, but better quality.

And here - a kind of hierarchy of teas. At the top of the pyramid is the famous Krasnodar, which really was the best. But somehow it was not possible for mere mortals to get it, in any case, Sanka never saw it on sale, as well as the yellow Ceylon, which is represented here on the third level of the pyramid. And here top grade Indian (the highest, Karl! and not with an elephant !!!) came across.

The fact that the people in our country have a sharp and accurate tongue, I hope everyone knows?
So, teas of the first grade were called "with firewood", teas of the second grade were called "from a broom."
They got such a name, of course, not just like that, but for large pieces"wood" (apparently cut directly with branches) in tea. And for the intoxicating broom taste and smell. Really broom - here the people did not play the soul at all, and the comparison was not a metaphor. In addition, he also brewed terribly badly - hell knows what kind of hellish revenge there was ...

Elephant tea - traditional name long leaf black tea, produced in the USSR in packs depicting a stylized elephant with a driver. The tea was called "Indian", but like most modern packaged types of black tea, it was a blend (mixture) of products from different places and varieties. As parts of the mixture, Indian and Georgian teas, to which products from other regions could be added. In modern Russia, the Moscow tea factory produces a series of teas under the brand “That Same Tea”, the design of which is similar to tea “with an elephant” produced in the USSR. As creators original recipe mixtures are indicated by the Irkutsk tea-packing factory or the Moscow tea factory. The original appearance of the box was developed in 1967 by order of the Moscow tea factory. In 1972, this tea went on sale. Mixtures of 2/3 Georgian tea and 1/3 Indian tea are called as blending options, as well as for “elephant” tea of ​​the 1st grade: 55% Georgian, 25% Madagascar, 15% Indian and 5% Ceylon tea. As a possible variety of Indian tea is called Darjeeling (one of the best Indian varieties). Tea recipes had to comply with the requirements of GOST / TU (GOST 1938-73, TU 10-04-05-28-88, GOST 1938-90). In the USSR, this tea was produced at a number of tea-packing factories, including Moscow, Irkutsk, Ryazan, Ufa, and Odessa. Each factory had its tea-tasters (tea tasters, English tea tasting), who made mixtures with desired characteristics(taste, color, smell, price, etc.). In addition, the factories had a certain independence, in particular in concluding contracts for the supply of Georgian tea. Tea "with an elephant" - the traditional name of black loose tea, produced in the USSR in packs, which was a stylized elephant with a mahout. The tea was called "Indian," but as most modern types of packaged black tea it was a blend (mixture) of production of different field and varieties. As parts of the mixture are usually referred to as Indian and Georgian tea, which could added products and other regions. In modern Russia the Moscow tea factory produces a series of teas under the brand "the tea" - a design which is similar to tea "with an elephant", produced in the USSR. As the creators of the original recipe specifies the Irkutsk tea-packing factory, or Moscow tea factory. Original appearance the box was developed in 1967 by order Moscow tea factory. In 1972, this tea on sale. The blend is called blend of 2/3 Georgian tea and 1/3 Indian, and "tea with elephant" 1 grade: 55% Georgian, 25% Madagascar, 15% Indian and 5% Ceylon tea. As possible varieties of Indian tea called Darjeeling (one of the best Indian varieties). Tea recipes had to meet the requirements of GOST/TU (GOST 1938-73, THE 10-04-05-28-88, GOST 1938-90). In the USSR, this tea has been produced in several tea-packing factories, including in Moscow, Irkutsk, Ryazan, Ufa, Odessa. Each factory had their t-Masterov (tea tasters, eng. tea tasting), which was purchased from parties was mixture with the desired characteristics (taste, color, smell, price, etc.). In addition, the factories had a independence, in particular in the conclusion of contracts for the supply of Georgian tea.